


Cold Feet

by JHsgf82



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Domestic Bliss, F/M, Fluff, Sassy Peeta, a bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24435709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JHsgf82/pseuds/JHsgf82
Summary: Canon compliant.  Post-Mockingjay, Pre-Epilogue.  Response to Drabble Prompt:  "Quit touching me.  Your feet are cold."
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 123





	Cold Feet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [endlessnightlock (Endlessnightlock)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endlessnightlock/gifts).



> *Not sure if you’re going to like this, @endlessnightlock, but it’s what came to mind. I started this when you sent the prompt, and it’s been sitting half-finished in my docs. Finally, I got motivated to complete it. Well, I was trying to make it sweet, a bit angsty, funny, and sassy. It’s really a mishmash of I don’t know what, but I hope you like it. Maybe K and P are a bit OOC, but yeah, just a fun (extended) drabble. Sorry for the lack of creative title... 
> 
> Also, I realized Peeta only has one foot, so I changed it a little. 
> 
> Disclaimer: As usual, I do not own the rights to the series/characters.

It was a frigid winter night in District 12‒so cold that Peeta had actually shut the window for a change‒and Katniss and Peeta were in bed together. It’d been a long, exhausting day, but productive, Katniss supposed, even though Peeta hadn’t done any baking, and she hadn’t done any hunting. They’d accomplished a lot on the book, though, and they’d done a lot of talking.

There had been things to discuss and deal with; there always were, and though it took some time for Katniss to open up and speak about them, she felt it had been cathartic. She supposed it was inevitable she’d talk to Peeta, him above anyone else, for Peeta had this way about him… Like Prim, he was easy to talk to. He understood her more than anyone, even more than Gale had so long ago. And she could tell him things she could never say to Prim, the darkest things in her heart‒because, in some form or another, he’d been right alongside her through them all.

Peeta knew all she had suffered, and he’d suffered, too. They’d all suffered so much. But why was it the kindest, the gentlest, the best of them who suffered the most? Rue. Peeta. Prim.

Prim…

Like Rue, Prim had been too gentle, too pure, too good for this world…

Katniss’s chest still ached to think of her little sister, but it’d gotten easier to bring up her name, even tell stories about her. And there had been some of that today. Today had been filled with lounging and eating and chatting, and they’d accomplished a lot on the book. Peeta had done his best to make it easier when he saw it was going to be one of those days, yet it had still been one of the most difficult for Katniss in quite some time. Emotionally draining. But freeing…

Katniss glanced over at her husband, who appeared to be sleeping soundly, all except for the fact that he wasn’t snoring. He often snored lightly when he was in a deep sleep. She nestled closer and drew the covers up to her neck, and she stared at a crack in the ceiling. It was then that she felt something, the tiniest touch of a toe against her leg.

His toe was ice cold, and the shock went straight up her leg, blasting her, somehow, at her very core. She immediately jerked away.

So, he was awake.

“Quit touching me. Your foot is cold,” she said calmly, unable to comprehend it. Peeta’s body was always so warm; she was usually the cold one.

“But you’re so warm,” he muttered, eyes still shut. Then he did it again, tapped her leg, this time with all his toes and she nearly hauled off and hit him.

“Stop it,” she demanded, putting as much distance as she could between them.

“Sorry,” he muttered. She glanced over, and his eyes fluttered open. He rolled over to face her, but he didn’t attempt to put his foot on her again.

“Why are you so cold, anyway?” she barked.

Peeta one-armed shrugged and reached out to touch her arm, but she recoiled. She was mad at him right now. “I guess because I was walking around barefoot.”

“Why? Put a sock on next time.”

“Those wool socks we have are too thick. They make my foot sweat.” Katniss made a mental note to possibly get some lighter material and ask Greasy Sae about how to make slippers. “Come here…,” Peeta coaxed just then.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ll freeze me.”

“No, I won’t. I promise I’ll be good this time.” The room was lit well enough by the moon for her to see he was giving her an innocent smile.

Katniss shook her head and made a little mound with the covers to block his body from hers. She’d considered getting up and going to one of the other rooms, but she was comfortable and warm (for the most), and why should she be banished for his bad behavior? If anyone should go sleep in one of the other rooms, it should be him. And she was this close to sending him off…

“Come on, cupcake.”

“Don’t call me that, Peeta. I’m not one of your baked goods.”

“Okay. Sweetheart. Honey. Baby. Whatever...” He winked, and Katniss rolled her eyes.

“Seriously, though, come back. My foot may be cold, but the rest of me is nice and toasty...” He managed to slide a hand across her hip. Katniss felt a pleasant jolt but squirmed away.

Really? Was he really trying to get frisky with her? He couldn’t possibly be in the mood after the day they’d had. And he definitely couldn’t expect to get any after putting his frozen foot on her.

“No way. I don’t trust you.”

He feigned hurt. “After all we’ve been through, you don’t trust me?”

“Not in this case. You’ve broken it.”

Peeta heaved a sigh. “Let me make up for it...”

“No.”

The pleading went on for several minutes, and there were a few more attempts at touching her (with his hands only) before Peeta finally admitted defeat and rolled onto his back. Placing a hand behind his head, he closed his eyes. She waited to make sure he was completely out, then angled her body and wedged into her usual spot. But this time, only her torso was touching his, her legs a good six inches away just in case. She nestled in at something like a 45 degree angle, resting her head on his stomach and placing a hand on his ribcage. She may be annoyed with him right now, but that didn’t mean she was going to forego his body heat. And he was right‒the rest of him was warm.

***

The next morning, Katniss awoke alone in a cocoon of blankets with the extra one from the closet draped over her.

Peeta, she thought wistfully. She shook her head. This still doesn’t make up for it…  
Katniss reluctantly emerged from her cocoon and dressed for hunting, since she hadn’t been in a few days, and then she went downstairs. Peeta was in the kitchen baking‒she smelled the evidence before she saw it. She considered sneaking out without even saying good morning, perhaps going to stand in the snow barefoot in order to get her feet nice and frosty to get back at him. But that was impractical. It wasn’t worth risking frostbite, and what chance would she have to put her feet on him if he was up baking?

“I’ll get back at you somehow, Peeta Mellark,” she whispered her promise before smiling and greeting him.

After being fed, Katniss went out to hunt. She made it about halfway to the woods before realizing she’d forgotten her gloves. She didn’t want to go all the way back, so she decided to just deal with it. She hunted all morning, periodically warming her hands with her breath or sticking them in her pockets when she didn’t need them. She managed to bag a few rabbits and a groosling.

When she returned home for lunch, she was thankful for the wave of heat that hit her as she walked in the door. It had been exceedingly cold outside. Peeta was cooking something that smelled really good on the stove. Stew maybe? She watched him scoop out a heaping spoonful from the pot and drop it into a bowl. He then proceeded to do the same with a second bowl.

He hadn’t noticed she’d come in. Her Peeta, so oblivious when he was in his own little world in the kitchen. She decided to take advantage of it, and she took a long, hard look at him, unable to stop herself from admiring his backside and the way he effortlessly moved around the kitchen. He was as adept in the kitchen as any hunter was in the woods.

Peeta still wasn’t aware of her presence, which gave Katniss an idea, the perfect way to exact her revenge for last night. She crept up behind him, armed with the blocks of ice that were her hands. Slowly, she reached out, unsure whether to go for his neck or his back. The back would be more effective, she decided, so she carefully lifted his shirt and slipped her hands beneath.

“Yahh!” Peeta yelped, jumping a little.

Rather than letting him escape, she wrapped her arms tightly around his stomach and pulled him back against her in a bear hug. Her freezing hands settled on his abdominals.

“Katniss,” he hissed, although he didn’t attempt to escape.

Caught up in something more than vengeance, Katniss began running her hands over his skin, along the ridges of his stomach muscles, around to his back, then returning to the front to crawl upward to his chest. Basically, the motive of revenge had dissipated and now she was just caressing him…

“Katniss… What are you doing?” Peeta said in a low, husky voice.

Her hands stilled. “Sorry. Too much?” She was referring to the cold.

“No,” he said in a measured voice. “I-I, uh, barely notice it anymore...keep going…”

Emboldened, Katniss followed the solid path upward, tracing the plane of his sternum along the way to his chest, which, quite possibly, she liked to have her hands on even more than his stomach and back. Of course, it was all nice. Peeta’s body was one thing she’d never tire of exploring. She spread her fingers out, feeling as much of his broad chest as she could, though covering nowhere close to all of it.

Lost in the moment, his head dropped back, and hers dipped to rest against his shoulder. They remained that way for a moment or two.

All of a sudden, Peeta spun around in her arms and captured her waist. He looked down into her eyes, and his lips tilted upward. “Hmm…” He bent to softly kiss her. “You don’t fight fair at all, Mrs. Mellark,” he whispered against her lips.

Katniss pulled back slightly, a smirk playing on her lips. “I think you deserved it.”

Peeta nodded. “Yeah. I probably did. Although…”

Before she knew it, Katniss was being hoisted up and over his shoulder like a sack of flour. “Peeta! Peeta, no! Stop!” she exclaimed, but her protests were accompanied by breathless laughter.

Peeta carried her off toward the stairs and began to ascend.

“Peeta, where are you taking me?"

“Oh, I think you know,” he grinned.

“Put me down,” she halfheartedly protested. "The food's gonna get cold..."

Peeta chuckled. “I’m sorry, my love, no can do. I'll heat it up later, but for now, you’re going to have to pay for what you did.”

Katniss exhaled and let herself go limp in his arms. Apparently, this was turning into an endless cycle, but she had the feeling that this time, she wasn’t going to mind.


End file.
